Small Things Like These
Having written a surprise best-seller in The Fatal Shore, Robert Hughes wondered what to write next. He eventually heeded the advice of a friend to do a small book on something he liked. The result was a monograph on the British painter, Frank Auerbach, an artist he wanted to bring to wider attention.
With Small Things Like These, one imagines Cillian Murphy doing something very similar. After winning a shelf-load of Best Actor awards for his role in Oppenheimer, including an Oscar, he has gone back to Ireland and made a small, poignant film based on a story he admired.
Murphy not only acts in this movie, drawn from a slim novel by acclaimed Irish author, Claire Keegan, he is also producer. He has company in Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who came on board with their firm, Artists Equity, after Damon had discussed the project with Murphy on the set of Oppenheimer. Belgian director, Tim Mielants, with whom Murphy worked on the TV series, Peaky Blinders, is at the helm, while the screenplay is by Enda Walsh, who gave Murphy his first big break, in the play, Disco Pigs (1996).